The Welcoming Party
by Suzie's Q
Summary: Lily's meeting James' parents on the platform, but they seem to already know a lot about her.


Don't own Harry Potter.

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**The Welcoming Party  
**Summary: Lily's meeting James' parents on the platform, but they seem to already know a lot about her.  
Pairing: J/L  
Word Count: 1,182  
Rating: K

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While they step off the train for the last time, James gives her hand a gentle squeeze. She smiles, glancing up at the red steam engine again with a wistful sigh. "I can't believe it's over."

He shrugs, the two of them weaving through the sea of people to find a familiar face. "I dunno. I'm kind of excited."

Lily laughs. "Doesn't take much to get you excited," she retorts. "And I should know, I am an _expert _at getting you excited."

"Who's getting James excited?" a new voice says. James groans, squeezing her hand again. He's stopped, she realizes, beside a thin, black-haired woman, several inches shorter than him. He stoops and kisses her cheek.

"Mum, this is -"

"Lily! How are you, dear?" Lily recovers quickly from the surprise that the older woman knew her name, and shakes the hand she's extended towards her.

"I'm - I'm fine, thank you," she stammers, glancing at James, who shrugs his shoulder in the utter embodiment of nonchalance. _Just go with it. _

"How did your exams go?" she asks, and Lily notes that she seems a lot more interested in _her _than she did in James. "How did you find them?"

"A-alright," she says, shrugging her shoulders. "They could have been worse. They were actually okay."

"Of course they were, a bright spark like yourself!" Mrs. Potter says cheerfully.

"I - well, they weren't easy, strictly speaking," Lily starts to explain, but she trails off, not really knowing where she's going with it.

Mrs. Potter has a very kind smile that reminds Lily very much of James', except her eyes are blue and wide and unlike James' mix of brown and gold and delicate shades of green altogether.

"It's so nice to finally meet you," Mrs. Potter tells her in earnest. "After hearing so much about you, I thought you must have been someone James just invented, he was always an imaginative boy."

James flushes, but he's looking at the two of them with a small smile, and Lily can tell he's pleased. "Yes," she agrees. "He certainly has some delusions of grandeur."

Mrs. Potter's laugh is like a bell, and Lily starts to search her memories for her first name, as she's sure James mentioned it to her before. "Yes, well, I told him "James, darling, no one is that perfect" but he was very insistent, and here you are!"

"I assure you, Mrs. Potter," Lily says quickly. "He's probably exaggerated quite a bit."

"He tends to do that too," the older woman says, looking at her son with pure affection. "Although I call it _lying, _he insists otherwise. And please, dear, call me Jocelyn. Mrs Potter is my mother-in-law."

"Mum," James says warningly, eyebrows raised.

"I wasn't going to say anything!" she - Jocelyn - protests immediately, winking at Lily. Her smile seems to put Lily at ease, and when she thinks of James when he met _her parents, _she is positively serene in comparison.

"Mum has always had a bit of problem with my grandmother," James informs Lily, looking amused. "Dad says that's just natural."

"But we surely won't have that problem here, will we?" Jocelyn chirps. James pales, and then flushes, and then groans, turning away from the two of them and smacking his hand to his forehead.

Jocelyn just beams at her son. "He always gets a bit flushed when he's talking about you." _Always? _"So, Lily. What are you hoping to do after school?" she asks conversationally. "James, find your father, would you? He went to speak to Hope and Lyall."

He nods, kisses Lily's forehead, and vanishes into the crowd again. Lily shrugs. "I'm not really sure yet."

"Well, James said you're very good with Charms," Jocelyn says thoughtfully. "My husband is quite high up in the MInistry, he'd be more than happy to get you an interview there - perhaps with the Experimental Charms Committee?"

Lily's eyes widen and she cannot get the words out of her mouth fast enough. "Oh, no, Mrs Potter - I mean, Jocelyn - that's really not necessary."

"Something in Potions? An internship?"

Lily shakes her head, tucking her hair - which matches her face by now - behind her ear. "I'd actually like something in the Daily Prophet."

"Ah, I should have known," Jocelyn says, nodding, and the way her eyes twinkles nearly knocks the breath out of Lily, because she's seen that look so many times before. She doesn't ask exactly _how _she should have known. There's a warm feeling spreading from her heart by now, but she still makes a mental note to berate James for passing so much personal information later, because she'd like to tease him about it.

"And of course, you're the type of girl who'd like to make it on her own merit, not someone else's word," Jocelyn says wisely. Lily nods slowly, quite unsure how James could have conveyed something like that to his parents.

"That would be it, yes," she admits, smiling at her timidly.

Jocelyn seems full of questions - half of which she already knows the answer to. Lily's smile grows while they speak, and she notices that Jocelyn is a lot like James, and she could get used to this woman very easily.

"So your parents, they must be waiting for you outside the platform?"

This question makes Lily's smile fade slightly, and she nods, her expression guarded. "Yes, they drive up for me every year." She waits with baited breath.

But Jocelyn only nods, peering at her curiously. "Fascinating. They drive up? In one of those cars?"

Lily nods, smiling, her shoulders sagging with relief. The topic goes back to careers then, since they are just finished school, and their common interest - James - is making Lily relax, and warm to his mother.

"Of course, my wretched son wants to be a Quidditch player of all things!" she's saying now, as James returns with his father. His father is tall, taller than James and much taller than his wife. He has bushy eyebrows, and broad shoulders, and a brooding expression. Now Lily knows where James got his eyes.

"And we don't know where he got the notion from at all! Of course, you're on my side, I know you don't really like it," Jocelyn continues, patting her shoulder.

Lily shrugs. "I don't mind it. Seems a bit dangerous."

James rolls his eyes, and is just about to launch into the same argument for about the thousandth time, when his father smiles and reaches toward Lily.

"You must be Lily," he says. Despite his slightly intimidating look, he is soft-spoken, with a gentle voice and a kind smile. "Nice to meet you."

"You too, sir," Lily says, blushing.

"It's nice to finally put a face to your name," he says thoughtfully. "We've been looking forward to getting to know our "future-daughter-in-law", as my son says it," he says, cheerfully and teasingly, elbowing James playfully.

Lily goes beet red, and James lets out a groan, covering his face with his hands. "Merlin, I am so broken up with."


End file.
